


Dance of Love

by SophieRipley



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Aromantic, Asexual Character, Asexuality, Dancing, F/F, Lesbian Character, One Shot, Platonic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-25 07:32:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7523995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieRipley/pseuds/SophieRipley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Judy and Nick--best friends and platonic life partners--go out for an evening of dance and drinking.  Mild hi-jinks ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance of Love

Nick Wilde sat splayed across his couch; a nearly naked and very adorable female bunny sat lounging against him like he was a body pillow.  His left arm was slung around her side resting in her panty-clad lap, and he was looking at the phone in her hands over her shoulder.  She was currently scrolling through her muzzlebook feed, pausing every now and then to admire a well-drawn piece of art here or a photo from her parents’ farm there.  She knew he was looking, but she didn’t seem to care.  She never did, really: Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde had known each other for three years and had been friends for nearly all of that.  Nick was her very best friend in the world, the mammal she loved more than any other, the fox that had her back on the job and off, and she trusted him with everything in her.

Tonight, “everything” simply happened to be her bare chest, carrot-speckled boyshorts, and social media.  Unfortunately for Nick, however, that wasn’t all she had on her mind.  He had begun to nod off; it was Friday night and the week had been quite difficult for both of them, and the tiny furnace that was his best friend was as effective a sedative as diazepam.  He happened, however, to take a lungful of air with the intent of heaving a contented sigh, but instead his nose wrinkled.

“Carrots.”  His voice was equal parts amusement and fascinated distaste, and it caused the bunny to tilt her head back and look up at him upside down.  “Sweetheart.  Bestie.  Love of my life.  Cutest ball of fluff I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”  Her curiosity melded interestingly with a certain well-intentioned upside down glare when he uttered the C-word, but she didn’t interrupt the brief pause that followed.

“You need a shower.”  Nick laughed as she elbowed him in the ribs and leaned back into the couch.

“It’s not my fault I smell delicious, Slick,” snarked Judy, looking back down at her phone.

“You don’t,” said Nick.  “Well, that’s not true.  Usually.  But right now, you smell like you could really use a good shower.  With ice water.”  She displayed her confusion with a tilt of the head and thought about it for a minute before it clicked.

“Oh.  _OH._ ”  She elbowed him again.  “It’s not my fault my libido is perfectly normal for my species.  If you can’t handle the musk, you shouldn’t have split an apartment with me.”  She smirked at him over her shoulder. Nick chuckled and tightened his arm around her.

“Alright then, Carrots.  How about we go out instead?  I know this great rave club in the meadowlands, place called Black Iris.  You’ll love it.”  Judy paused in her scrolling for a moment, then bounced in Nick’s lap before loudly informing him it was a great idea and running to her bedroom to get dressed.

“Wear that midnight sleeveless v-neck,” he called after her, and then stood to get dressed himself.  He chose a pair of black slacks and a loose graphite dress shirt with a royal purple tie.  Judy, by contrast, skipped out of her room in the very same blouse he recommended—which did wonders for her figure—and had complemented it with a flowing forest green skirt.  She looked amazing, and Nick told her so.

“Yeah, yeah, Slick Nick.  Let’s go, I’m in a dancing mood all of a sudden.”

The walk was pleasant.  It was a cool evening just edging on cold and the sky was clear; the sun had set just an hour or two prior, meaning the day shift mammals and the night shift mammals were exchanging places.  This of course meant that the streets were somewhat busy, and the pair earned a few spare glances.  None of them were hostile; after all, Nick and Judy were well-known in their neighborhood and the surrounding ones, and all who may have disliked their closeness initially were accustomed to seeing them together.  So by the time they made it to the nondescript façade of the meadowlands nightclub, their mood had only been enhanced.

The place from the outside was very plain.  The building itself was low-slung and built of moss-colored brick, and the doors were adorned with a stylized iris blossom, painted in black.  At this time of night it wasn’t much of a wait to get in, and once the lion bouncer waved them inside Judy was quivering with excitement.

Inside, “plain” could not describe it.  The entire inside of the club was decorated by patterns painted in shades of blacks and dark greys, lit by ultraviolent lamps and deep blue mood lighting, and the music—Flux Pavilion, if Judy had to guess—was earsplitting.  The side walls of the main room were taken up by booths, the back wall obscured by the bar, and the dance floor was bathed in heavy violet lighting and filled with animals of many sizes dancing as if their lives depended on it.

Judy dragged Nick across the floor by the hand, wanting a drink before getting down to the dancing.  One drink, however—something fruity for her, scotch for him—turned into several and by the time they floated out to writhe and toss amongst the crush they were quite lubricated, Judy more so than Nick.  He enjoyed watching her in the dark club:  tipsy as she was, Judy seemed to be making a point to burn as much energy with as many dance partners as possible, and Nick loved that she was enjoying herself so much.

After the fifth—or perhaps fiftieth—dance partner, Judy apparently decided she needed a break.  Nick had stepped aside a long time ago, his appetite for dance much more conservative than hers, though he’d made a point of it to stay in her line of sight in case she needed help.  This was a boon for her though when she decided to take a break, because she only had to glance over to find him waiting and sipping on a new drink.  She skipped over arm in arm with another bunny, flushed and panting and beaming.

“Who’s your new friend, Carrots?”  He handed her the fruity concoction he’d gotten for her when he bought his own, raising his voice and leaning in to be heard.  She took the drink, took a deep pull from it, and passed it to her equally-flushed and panting companion.  The doe, who took the drink and sipped it, was quite attractive, if Nick did say so himself, her cream colored fur shiny, blue eyes sparkling, and her lines graceful.

“This is Alice,” yelled Judy back.  “Alice, my best friend Nick!”  Judy unconsciously leaned into Nick’s side as she introduced him, her arm still linked with Alice’s, and Nick automatically slung his own arm over her shoulders.

“Hi!” Alice smiled cautiously at him.  “Are you dating?”  Judy laughed out loud, and Nick chuckled before answering.

“No,” said Nick with a good-natured expression of distaste.  “I’m asexual, I don’t date!”  The relief on Alice’s face was palpable, but Nick ignored it.  He understood; bunnies were always nervous around him, and besides, his nose could tell that the doe was quite… _infatuated_ with Judy.

They didn’t talk much after that, considering how inhospitable the place was to hearing speech, but there were a couple drinks shared between the trio and the girls took another turn on the dance floor before there was an unspoken consensus to leave.  Alice came with, supporting Judy’s drunk tail as much as Judy was supporting her, and Nick—who was much more sober thanks to his iron liver and larger size—made sure they both remained on the sidewalk.  Some minutes later, they found themselves at a cozy all-night diner and discovered that it was already well after midnight somehow.  Conversation flowed organically, going from jobs—Alice worked at a library—to movie tastes—Alice was a horror fan like Judy, while Nick preferred comedies—and finally to Judy and Nick’s history.

“And so Nick spent the next hour giving me all kinds of horrifyingly impressed looks,” said Judy through a mouthful fries. 

“Of course,” retorted Nick with a laugh.  “I had no idea she’d be able to befriend a mob boss so easily.  And it saved my sorry hide, so I had to be grateful.”

“Yeah, it was the start of a beautiful relationship.”  Judy paused to quaff some soda.

“So you’ve been friends since?  That’s awesome, you guys.  I admire that.”  Nick was not the target of the deeply touched expression Alice gave, but he smiled at it anyway.

Conversation continued between the three well into the early morning, and when finally they made it back to the apartment sleep came fast and hard for Nick, despite the lewd sounds coming from his roommate’s bedroom. 

When morning came, Nick found himself in the unusual position of being the first to wake.  He spent a few minutes to dress himself in some shorts and a ZPD tee, performed his morning ablutions in the bathroom, and peeked in on Judy and her guest.  They were wrapped tightly around each other under the blue bedspread and—more importantly—still deeply asleep, so Nick quietly excused himself and went to make coffee and prepare a light breakfast.

He sat sipping his coffee—a bitterly dark roast with a hint of hazelnut—and scrolling through news on his phone at the kitchen table until he heard stirring in the bedroom.  By the time Judy and Alice wandered out looking well rested, hangover notwithstanding, Nick had gotten up, fixed two cups of hot chocolate just the way Judy liked it, warmed a pair of blueberry muffins with an accompanying dish of butter, and fetched a couple painkillers for the girls, anticipating they’d have a headache.  Judy said nothing but did smile at him as she passed behind him, trailing a hand along his shoulders as she went, pausing just long enough to hug him before taking her customary seat to Nick’s right at the small, square table and popping the pill he’d provided.

Alice did not touch him or hug him, naturally, but she did observe the interaction closely, and sat across from Nick, to Judy’s right.  She too took the pill, and she smiled sweetly at Judy when the doe moaned and wiggled her tail after sipping her drink.

“Nick, you saint, you’re so good at making this,” murmured Judy.  That was the only thing that was said for the duration of breakfast; on Nick and Judy’s part, it was their typical companionable morning silence; for Alice’s part, it was equal portions of hangover and observation.  Nick knew he was being watched; knew she saw how Nick got up to rinse out Judy’s mug when she was done with it, how Judy automatically took Nick’s coffee and refilled it when she got up to get some water, listened to the slowly-increasing dialogue between the two as they woke up and talked about plans for the day and chores that needed doing and not-quite-gushing about how much fun the Black Iris was the previous evening.  Nick noticed her noticing it all, and he didn’t change his behavior to conceal it.  She deserved to know what she was getting into.

Eventually Alice giggled a bit out loud and grinned at the pair.

“Are you sure you guys aren’t married?”  Alice’s question was accompanied by a teasing smile.

“Nah,” said Nick, his grin fading a little as he became more serious.  “I’ve never had any interest in sex or romance.  We may as well be married, though, in fox culture.  She’s my lifemate.”

“Like our soulmates,” supplied Judy.  “Foxes are extremely monogamous, like we are.”  Alice’s smile faded and she looked at Judy with a guarded expression that Nick could see concealed uncertainty and a certain edge of upset.

“So then…does that mean he’s _your_ …?”  Judy stared blankly for a bare moment, then shook her head.

“My soulmate?  No.  Not how you’re meaning.  He’s the best friend I’ve ever had, I can’t imagine ever not having him in my life, but…it’s platonic.  On both sides, in fact, like Nick mentioned.”  Alice still looked a little uncertain, so Nick sat up from his slouch and gave her a patient smile.

“It’s like this,” drawled the fox.  “Gravity holds us all to the planet, right?  Keeps us here, keeps us grounded.  When I met Carrots, gravity shifted.  Suddenly, _she_ was keeping me here.  _She_ was keeping me grounded.  I love seeing her, I love hearing her laugh, I love making her happy.  She’s a fundamental part of who I am, now.  For most foxes, this situation means they fall in love, and if I was most foxes it would likely have been the case.  But I don’t feel romantic love, and I don’t experience lust.  So, to me, it’s like the most powerful familial bond you can think of.  It transcends labels and social convention and boundaries.”  Nick paused to get up and refresh his coffee, and Judy jumped in.

“I feel the same thing,” continued the bunny.  “It’s like a spiritual echo, a soul-deep connection we have, but it’s completely platonic for me.  He’s my best friend and favorite brother all in one.  He has as much to do with my love life as he does with any other part of my life, but we’re not ‘together.’  Me being with someone else isn’t like I’m cheating, and he doesn’t resent me dating.”

“I know she’ll find a doe she loves one day,” interrupted Nick, returning to his seat, “and I’m okay with that.  If it’s the wife she deserves, there will be room for me still in Judy’s life.  And if there _isn’t_ room for me, well…”  He took a sip of his coffee, as much for effect as for his desire for the elixir.  “I’ll accept it as long as she’s happy.”  Judy gave him a nauseatingly sweet look; the sentiment he’d just expressed had been understood, but this was the first time he’d ever actually said it.  Nick knew she’d stressed about that very thing before, and he smiled back at her knowing she wouldn’t worry about it any longer.

“So what you’re saying,” replied Alice in a neutral tone, “is that you’re a package deal?  If Judy and I start dating, or even marry one day, I’d have to accept that a fox would be in the next room for the rest of my life?”  What could have been a sharp, painfully accusatory statement was made into something much more understanding with Alice’s openly intrigued expression.

“She’s as bad at concealing her feelings as you are, Carrots,” Nick joked.  “But no, like I said.  If you make Fluff happy, and she asks me to distance myself, I will.  No pressure, no disrespect.”

Alice looked Judy in the eye and with an impressively straight face said, “I like your husband, Judy.”  All three of them burst into laughter, and it continued for several joyous moments.

“I think we’ll get along just fine,” chuckled Nick when they calmed down again.

And they did.  Alice and Judy dated for nine months before Alice proposed.  The ceremony was held in Bunnyburrow, and Nick proudly stood as Judy’s best man…though he told anyone who would listen that he was actually her maid of honor.

~Fin~

**Author's Note:**

> I had fun writing this. I hope everyone enjoys it!
> 
> In the story, Nick calls himself asexual, and goes on to explain that he doesn't experience sexual desire or romantic love; I'm aware that asexual and aromantic are generally considered separate terms, and this version of Nick probably is as well, but I felt that it was more appropriate to eschew mention of the latter, if for no other reason than brevity.


End file.
